Lionel Messi's New Role as Owner of Eldense

Lionel Messi is edging closer to a new role in Spanish football – this time not with a ball at his feet, but with a club in his hands.

According to Spanish daily Marca, the Argentine has reached a preliminary agreement to buy Eldense, a recently promoted Segunda División side based in Elda, in the province of Alicante. If the deal is completed, Messi would take 100% of the club’s shares, with no third-party partners involved.

This move would mark his first direct step into Spanish professional football as an owner, building on the foundations he laid earlier this year with the purchase of Cornellà, a Catalan third-division club. The pattern is clear: Messi is not just dabbling. He is assembling a portfolio inside the same football landscape that shaped his career.

At the heart of the project, according to the report, is a straightforward idea: channel his legacy back into the game. Eldense offers a very specific canvas – a club that has just climbed into the second tier, in a region not far from Catalonia, where Messi plans to settle once he hangs up his boots at Inter Miami.

The timing is striking. Off the pitch, the ownership picture is shifting again. On it, the team is in trouble.

Eldense has already lived one major transformation. In October 2015, an international investment group with Colombian roots, led by businessman Juan Carlos Trujillo, took control from Pascual Pérez. In recent months, rumours linked Argentine investor Ricardo Beni with a potential takeover worth around 12 million euros. That story faded. Messi’s name has now surged to the front of the conversation.

The deal is not done yet. Final legal and contractual steps remain, including financial due diligence, and the Spanish National Sports Council still has to sign off before any announcement can become official. The expectation, though, is that everything could be wrapped up within days if all checks are cleared.

While the boardroom waits on signatures and approvals, the dugout sits empty. Eldense dismissed coach Claudio Barragán last Monday, the first managerial casualty of the Segunda División season. Four league games, two points, no wins – that was enough to cost him his job. The club has yet to appoint a replacement, leaving a squad already under pressure without a clear direction.

So Eldense stands at a crossroads: a struggling team, a vacant bench, and the looming prospect of one of football’s greatest players stepping in as owner. If the agreement is sealed, Messi will inherit not just a badge and a stadium, but a crisis that demands immediate answers.